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DETROIT — The Detroit Institute of Arts has launched its first exhibition app, ‘Shirin Neshat at the DIA,’ in conjunction with its Shirin Neshat exhibition, currently on view through July 7.

The app was developed for Android and iPad tablets and is available for free download through the Apple and Google Play stores.

The interactive app, which was developed with the London-based D Giles Ltd and Cultureshock Media, provides the user with in-depth information about Neshat’s work through short clips of her videos and select photographs in the exhibition, audio commentary by the artist and curator, an artist interview and links to additional information. A detailed timeline of Iran’s modern history helps place Neshat’s work in the context of events that inspired her powerful art.

Shirin Neshat was born in Iran in 1957 and grew up during a relatively progressive time in that country’s history for women and the arts. Shortly after she came to the United States to study, Iran’s 1979 Revolution brought a conservative regime to power. As restrictions on expression, dissent and activities of women increased in her homeland, Neshat decided to remain in the U.S.

She returned to Iran several times between 1990 and 1996, and was deeply affected by the cultural changes, especially in peoples’ physical appearance and public behavior. Her experiences during these visits inspired many of the themes seen in her art. Her strikingly complex images integrate issues related to Iranian politics and history, images of Muslim women and references to Iranian literature. Her art explores the spaces between her personal aspirations, extraordinary life story, and socio-political situation in Iran, and, by extension, the Muslim world. Though deeply rooted in her Iranian background, Neshat’s work also incorporates universal themes of empowerment, loss, sacrifice, and the human desire for expression.

This exhibition is the first major showing of Neshat’s work in more than 10 years and is free with museum admission. Shirin Neshat is organized by the Detroit Institute of Arts. Generous support has been provided by the MetLife Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, and Marjorie & Maxwell Jospey Foundation.